Guest guest Posted September 20, 2001 Report Share Posted September 20, 2001 http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20010920a3.htm BSE tests target a million cattle Shipments to meat plants to halt before EU-style checks The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry plans to test all of the nation's 1 million cows aged 30 months and over for mad cow disease by adopting screening methods used by the European Union, ministry officials said Wednesday. Health vice minister Jungoro Kondo explains the stricter inspections that will take place to prevent mad cow disease. The ministry also said it will ask farmers nationwide to suspend shipments of such cows to meat processing plants until the new inspection system gets under way in October. The measure, which will require farmers to breed their cows for a longer period, could dampen domestic beef consumption. The farm ministry will consider providing subsidies to farmers or emergency loans to meat wholesalers to ease the negative impact on their business, the officials said. The ministry decided to expand the scope of existing tests for mad cow disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, after a Holstein at a farm in Chiba Prefecture earlier this month was suspected of being Japan's first known carrier of the disease, the officials said. The tests, to be conducted at 117 hygiene inspection centers across the country, will be performed on all cows aged 30 months or over that are destined to be processed into meat for human consumption. Studies in Europe suggest that symptoms of mad cow disease mostly appear in cows aged 30 months or over. The EU has dealt with several outbreaks of the disease in recent years. The total cost of the inspections in Japan will be about 3 billion yen, the officials said. The ministry's Inspection and Safety Division said the costly tests are necessary to ensure the safety of beef. Since May, the ministry has conducted intensive examinations on cows aged 2 years or over that have shown symptoms of the disease, such as being unable to stand. It will continue conducting checkups on cows aged between 24 months to 30 months. Some 1.3 million cows are processed into meat each year in Japan. Of them, about 1 million are 30 months old or over, the ministry said. The new methods will reduce inspection time, the officials said. To test a suspect cow, the ministry usually sends it to Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine in Hokkaido, where a 48-hour inspection is conducted. However, the new testing methods require only four to six hours. Testing of the 1 million head of cattle will begin next month once inspectors have been fully trained in the new techniques. The ministry plans to examine 500,000 cows by next March. Mad cow disease was first confirmed in Britain in 1986. The disease is thought to cause the fatal human variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Fish may have got feed MATSUYAMA, Ehime Pref. (Kyodo) Bone-and-meat feed made from parts of a dairy cow suspected of having mad cow disease may have been fed to fish at farms in Uwajima, Ehime Prefecture, prefectural officials said Wednesday. The feed in question was produced at a plant in Ibaraki Prefecture and used parts from a cow believed to have contracted the disease. The cow was kept at a dairy farm in Chiba Prefecture. Some 100 tons of the feed was shipped to a wholesaler in Tokushima Prefecture. On Wednesday, officials at Ehime Prefecture's livestock division said it has found that part of that feed was already sold to a firm in Uwajima, and that some of it may have been given to fish. Agriculture officials nationwide have been working since last week -- when the suspect cow came to light -- to track down the shipping routes of the meat-and-bone meal, as well as cows that were bred at the same farm in Saroma, Hokkaido, as the animal in question. The Japan Times: Sept. 20, 2001 © All rights reserved Terrorist Attacks on U.S. - How can you help? Donate cash, emergency relief information http://dailynews./fc/US/Emergency_Information/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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